Prof Zebulon No E07

I) Eschatology (Rapture identified and explained)

The End Times begin with the rapture of the Church of Jesus Christ. In this event, all believers, both alive and dead will meet the Lord Jesus Christ in the clouds and we shall be with Him forever 1 Thes 4 :13 - 17. This will, as you can imagine, throw the world into an uproar; people will think that all Believers were kidnapped by extra-terrestrials or whatever and will begin to join forces to fight these invading aliens; just like in the movie Independence Day. This worldwide reaction that I talk about is all speculation, of course but the rapture will definitely be an event of gargantuan proportions.

Now, the Rapture of the Church is not to be confused with the events in Revelation 19: 11-21 where Jesus comes riding a white horse and is called The King of kings and Lord of lords. All the saints will follow Him and He will defeat the Anti-Christ who has taken over the world. These are two separate events; the Second Coming of Jesus Christ will be in two stages with a certain lapse of time between each stage, In the first stage, Jesus will “snatch” us away secretly in the clouds. The words “caught up” used in 1 Thess 4 :17 means to steal or snatch as a robber; the word is harpazo in Greek and it means to snatch or to steal. In the second stage, He will come to conquer Anti-Christ and will usher in the Millennium Period on earth in Revelation 20.

L) World Religions (Mormons)

This American religion was founded by Joseph Smith who lived from 1805 to 1844 and is called the Prophet because he claimed that he received revelation from God in the same way as the Old and New Testament prophets did. He supposedly spoke to an angel called Moroni. Joseph Smith was followed by another prophet whose name was Brigham Young. This religion is also called The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and its main temple is in Salt Lake City, Utah. It has lesser temples all over the world and in 1998 they had over 10 million members of which over 5 million live in the USA. They claim to be Christians.

Their doctrines are definitely not Christian:

1) They do not believe in the Trinity where God is three distinct persons in one; they believe in three different Gods: a) God the Father b) Jesus Christ, His Son c) The Holy Spirit

2) They believe that God is in a place called Kolob and that He is having spiritual children with His wives.

3) They believe that Lucifer and Jesus were brothers and that they each had a plan of salvation for man; Jesus' plan was accepted, Lucifer's was rejected; thus he was banished from heaven and became Satan.

4) They believe that they must have many children because where God is there are many spirits waiting for human tabernacles. They’re any many more examples; the list is just too long.

When they come door to door, they don't talk about these doctrines; they're reserved for long-time members.

However, when they do come to our doors as missionaries, they are well dressed, polite and very understanding. They speak of a Book of Mormon that contains their writings and say that the Bible is not complete with out it because of the revelation that their prophets received. That's very interesting because at the end of the book of Revelation the Bible says in chapter 22 verse 18: "For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book".